Melissa Bowen
Upon noticing this watch, I had a friend tell me how envious he was of me - "I guess you need to get your second kid out of the way before you get to buy your `Submariner.' I have been asking my wife if I could get one for years with no luck." Later that day I told him that I liked the Tag he was wearing. "Not as nice as yours" was his response (His Tag cost 12 - 15 times what MY "Submariner" cost).I have only had this watch for several days, so my review is based upon that experience. I hope to update my review a couple of years in the future. I bought it because my ESQ of 9 years was with the repairperson being cleaned, is having some problems, and ESQ discontinued the model. I have owned Pulsar, Timex, Michel Herbelin, and an ESQ 200M diver and my review will compare my impressions against those timepieces, especially the ESQ.PROs:AppearanceMovementValueCONs:Tight BezelLuminescenceGrinding screw-down crownFirst, this is a STUNNING, beautiful watch! It looks better than the photos. Depending upon the light, the color changes from blue to purple to royal blue. The watch case has Invicta engraved on one side and looks elegant. The Invicta logo wings on the back of the second hand look classy.The crown has a Swiss cross raised on it and is of the screw-down variety. It threads with a grinding, unnatural feel, and I fear it will mis-thread and fail over time.The bezel is tight and rotates with great reluctance (an apparent Invicta trait). I use the bezel a lot and am disappointed I will be unable to use it much on this watch. The bezel on my ESQ is near perfect, and I am puzzled why Invicta cannot improve this aspect.The luminescence is disappointing. When exposed to direct, unfiltered sunlight the lume is initially fine but fades within an hour. My ESQ puts it to shame.The band (brushed silver links with polished gold links) is fine, looks GREAT, and does not pull my arm hair but does not feel as heavy or as high quality as my ESQ's band (I cannot image what the "folded link" bands on lesser Invictas are like). I have read in these reviews that the 23k gold plating comes off rather easily over time.The movement is Swiss and seems fine. The second hand hits the watch's tick marks much more precisely than my ESQ.Overall, I believe the watch is a great value. I chose it because I would have had to move to the $400 - $500 price point to find anything else close to what I liked and Amazon offered a free extended warranty. Although I would not have purchased this watch without the extended warranty, I may purchase other Invicta's without it depending upon my experience with this one.UPDATE 11/12/11: Three years later and I have nothing but great things to say about this watch. Aside from some scuffs on the clasp and scratches toward the bottom of band from normal desk diving wear, the watch remains beautiful. Note that the scratches are on the center polished portion of the band but the gold plate remains fully intact; the brushed outer links look fine.Since it was under warranty, I did recently return it Invicta for its 3-4 year cleaning. It was returned to me with a slightly looser bezel, so that was a pleasant surprise. However, the movement also no longer hits the tick marks exactly (similar to my Christopher Ward). The cleaning cost me $56 (initially I thought it was only going to be $28), and I was without it for 3 months. In hindsight, I probably should have simply taken it to my local jeweler ($45 and without it for 3-6 weeks) and will do so in the future.
